It’s hard to believe that our oldest could already be six years old! Eden is growing up so quickly (much too quickly in my opinion!). School has taken her to a whole new level of maturity, knowledge and confidence. She knows everything (she seriously told me that last week!) and if you thought she was bossy before, you should see her now! I know she’s honing her leadership skills and will probably make a fantastic teacher when she grows up. Word from her teacher is that Eden is quite the helper and likes to encourage other students to follow the rules and keep focused during class.

Eden had her first school performance right before Thanksgiving and she was very cute on stage. She of course knew all of the motions and every word to every song. She is doing well in school and has already mastered all of the kindergarten sight words so her teacher has been sending home additional words each week. Eden is very motivated to read, but says that math is her favorite subject. She started subtraction last week and she amazes me with how quickly she has grasped the concept.

She’s still a wonderful big sister, and is constantly coming up with new games and ideas to keep her siblings entertained. Being at school all day makes it seem like we barely see Eden anymore, but we know she loves being at school and she hasn’t had any problems adjusting to the long days.

Eden is still doing gymnastics and was promoted to level 1/2 this past session. She’s the youngest in her group, but she’s determined to not be the “worst” in the class and works hard to be able to do all of the things that the 7 and 8 year olds can do. It’s funny to watch her on the bars, where girls who are at least a head taller than her are doing pull overs with their feet on the ground, while Eden has to use her upper body strength to pull herself up and then her abs to flip herself around.

A new interest for Eden is art. And although the constant crafting often results in paper scraps, scissors, glue, glitter, and a variety of other things all over my kitchen table and floor, it’s fun to see what she comes up with and in my very biased opinion, it’s pretty good. It will be fun to see what other things Eden discovers as she learns and grows as a six year old!

Eden has changed a lot over the last six months. Being 4 seems to be a bit hard on her. She’s much more opinionated (which is hard on me!) and often seems to be in a snit about something. She’s developed a lot of sass, but is quick to rephrase when she’s called out on it. She still loves being the helper and is a great big sister. She has become very independent and likes to get herself drinks and snacks and normally gets some for her siblings as well.

Eden’s really glad to be back in school and is of course, doing great! This week she is the bell ringer, so when it’s time for everyone to sit on the carpet, Eden rings the bell and everyone has to sit down. As you can imagine, she loves the power! Haha!

She’s doing gymnastics at a gym down the street and they’ve been really pleased with her skills there. They’ve been modifying things for her and her teacher told me the other day that she’s going to start working on back handsprings with her next. Eden has a real awareness of her body and is very strong, so it’s fun to watch her learn new skills, especially since she loves gymnastics so much!

Eden recently learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, so Ben and I bought her a new bike. She’s on a 14 inch-er now and she zips around the cul-de-sac like she’s been riding for years! Andy and Eden love to ride everywhere and spend a couple of hours every afternoon riding around with the neighborhood kids. She’s taken a couple of spills recently and her knees and face took the brunt of it, but she is really brave and hasn’t let it slow her down much.

There is always a song on Eden’s lips these days and it’s wonderful to hear her singing church and VBS songs. She loves to go outside and swing on the swing set and sing to herself. Even the neighbors can sing the songs now after listening to Eden sing them so often! Ben and I are entertained by the funny lyrics that she sings. She sings very confidently, but some of the words are totally off.

It’s so fun to watch Eden grow and she’s constantly amazing us with the things that she understands and the mannerisms that she’s developed that make her seem like a little adult.

On December 12, Eden turned 4! She is so proud of being 4 and has become very grown up in the last couple of weeks.

I missed Eden’s third birthday because she was in Kenya, so it was even more special to be together this year. Eden had a Jessie (from Toy Story) birthday party and our guests dressed like cowgirls and cowboys. It was fun to have a few friends and family together to celebrate Eden and she had a great time playing with her friends.

It’s been amazing to see how much Eden has changed in the last year. She has become even more of a high achiever and a wonderful helper. She loves to take care of Grace and clean her room as a surprise for us. She also wants to have a lot of adult conversations. Recently we’ve discussed the man she will marry (she made me promise to help her find him and mentioned that she would like him to have blonde hair!) and also more about her birth mother, her adoption and a lot of discussions about her time in Kenya.

Since Eden started school in the Fall, her ‘first child’ traits have become even more emphasized. She loves going to school and works very hard to get her car to the end of the track each day (the reward system at school). She comes home daily with a report on what the kids did in class and how well each one did on the race track. A few days ago, she came home and told me that she had a talk with Mrs. Amato about another child in the class who was using a bad word (butt) and that after she told Mrs. Amato, that child’s car was moved backwards. I love seeing aspects of Eden’s personality come out and it’s fun for me to watch her and to understand exactly what she does and why she’s doing it. Our first child bond runs deep. I wish I knew if her personality is nature or nurture.

Eden has become such a little grown up. She’s a great helper with Grace and likes to do “grown up” things like make her bed, drink tea in the morning with Deda and do almost everything by herself. She’s also very bossy (I have no idea where she’s learned that…) and I often joke that Andy doesn’t really need me because he has Eden to mother him!

I often see Eden taking care of younger kids, even at child care, but it was really fun to see her trying to keep up with the older kids this past weekend while we were visiting the Cooks. Eden was quite inspired by the things that 4 and 5 year olds can do and decided very quickly that she wanted to be able to do those things as well, like swimming without her float and having races in the yard.

Eden is currently taking gymnastics and ballet and really loves both classes. She’s normally the only student in her ballet class and I think she likes the attention, although we have to continue to remind her to watch her teacher instead of herself in the mirror! She is thrilled by the stamps that she gets in her classes and was VERY proud of herself for the extra stamp she got in gymnastics last week for being a good listener. Eden has learned to flip around on the bar all by herself and is the only one in her class that can do it. She’s also started watching gymnastics on tv and is now a HUGE Gabby Douglas fan. We’re quite excited that Gabby is going to the Olympics!

Eden likes going to “school” and enjoys her Thursdays at child care and Sunday school. She also had an opportunity to attend a Wonderful Wednesday class without Andy for a few weeks and loved going to school without him (and talked about it constantly!).

While Eden is still a very happy and outgoing girl, she has entered a whiney stage which is not so enjoyable. Ben and I work hard to be consistent in not responding to her whining but it’s a challenge to not say to her “Stop whining!” We’ve done a lot of traveling already this summer and Eden has been a trooper and has been pretty flexible with all of the changes.

We’re very proud of Eden and the enthusiastic, over-achieving, and loving rule-follower that she is becoming. It’s very fun to watch her grow up and we are so glad to be her parents!

We received word tonight that Eden’s humanitarian parole was granted! We haven’t made any plans yet (or even talked about it because Ben and Eden are still sleeping!) but we’re excited here and will post updates as we have them. Praise God for the AWESOME things He is doing!